1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to coatings and, in particular, to applying the coatings to structures. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to applying a coating to a structure using reusable master path rules for the surface of the structure.
2. Background
When manufacturing identical objects in mass production, the same coating is applied to a large number of the same or similar objects. In order to develop the best method of coating application, a coating may first be applied to a number of the objects while adjusting the application path and application settings to obtain desirable quality. After the desirable quality is obtained, the coating is then applied in quantity to hundreds or thousands of identical objects during manufacturing.
For large structures, such as aircraft, the coatings may change for each structure. For example, aircraft customers each require different paint colors to designate specific airlines. Additionally, areas to receive the coatings may change from structure to structure. For example, each aircraft may have different images selected by the aircraft customer. Each coating can have its own unique material characteristics such as viscosity, flash time, transfer coefficient, or other characteristics. Material characteristics of the coating affect the application quality of the coating. Due to the size and expense of large structures, it is not economically feasible to spray multiple test structures for each and every coating to determine an ideal application path.
For example, when applying coatings to large structures, it is desirable to maintain a wet edge during initial application in order to ensure proper blending of subsequent applications. Maintaining such a wet edge enables blending for desirable coating aesthetics.
Robotic painting uses programs to apply paint. Currently, for large structures, a single use application path is manually programmed for each pairing of a designated coating and a designated surface. Manually programming single use paths is at least one of more time consuming, more expensive, or more labor intensive than desired. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.